U.S. Men's A2 Players Among the Leaders at Pan Am Cup

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (June 2, 2010) – The U.S. Men’s A2 National Volleyball Team finished the Pan American Cup this past weekend, sweeping Argentina in the tournament’s gold medal match. The team wrapped up the Pan America Cup with a perfect 5-0 record.

Leading the way for the U.S. Men’s A2 Team was outside hitter Jayson Jablonsky (Yorba Linda, Calif.) who not only wrapped up the Cup with “Best Spiker” honors, but also was voted as tournament MVP.

The outside hitter finished in the top 10 in four skill categories including best spikers, where he led the pack with 59 kills and eight errors on 110 total attempts, best blockers, placing fifth with an average of 0.67 blocks per set, best servers and best receivers.

Jablonsky concluded the tournament with a total of 75 points, good for second place among leading scorers. Three other A2 players joined him in the top 20 including outside hitter Robert Tarr (Cape Canaveral, Fla.) at fifth place with 67 points, Carson Clark (Santa Barbara, Calif.) who placed 10th with 56 points and middle blocker David Smith (Saugus, Calif.) who finished at 18th place with 42 points.

Along with Jablonsky, two other U.S. Men’s A2 players were listed in the top five for blocking. Pacing the United States at the net was middle blocker Theo Brunner (Ridgefield, Conn.) who fell behind the leader by only a .03 blocks per set. Brunner finished the Cup with 13 totals blocks, five faults and averaged 0.72 blocks per set. Tarr took third with 13 blocks on 48 attempts and averaged 0.72 blocks per set.

Directing the offense was setter Brian Thornton (San Clemente, Calif.) who placed third among all setters with a 4.94 average running sets (assists) per set and did not receive a single setting fault for the entire tournament.

Along with being dominant at the net, the U.S. Men’s A2 Team also put up a strong back-row defense. Both Andrew McGuire (Manhattan Beach, Calif.), who had a success percentage of 44.12, and Dustin Watten (Long Beach, Calif.), whose success percentage was 43.02, were listed among the tournament’s top 10 best liberos.